Unravelling and weaving, sometimes simultaneously

Today’s Christmas song is “Stuck In The Smoke Hole Of Our Tipi,” an original song by Shoshonee Elder Oldhands (flamingwarbonnet on Youtube). I heard it for the first time yesterday, when a friend emailed the link for the Youtube video to me. It gave me a good chuckle. I wasn’t feeling too well yesterday, so perhaps that set me up for this somewhat morbid sense of humor. But this song got me to think how we take it for granted that everyone around the world knows about Santa Claus and the Christmas tradition associated with him. To someone who doesn’t know about Christmas or Santa Claus, he must look pretty silly in that red suit, bellowing “Ho, Ho, Ho” and lugging around a big sack of toys. This song explores the possibility of what could happen if Santa encounters an Indian tribe that doesn’t know him or the Christmas tradition.